Dreaming the Land 2014

We walked, we talked, we shared, we swam, we made music, we told stories and we camped in amazing places. The rich company and the landscape opened us up in ways we could not have imagined.

Sunshine through my dad’s old canvasWaking in green light

The morning, amazingWoken by the sweet sound of the bellNo cars or TV

We saw both moorland and woodland birds in abundance, many still feeding their young. We were graced with curlew chicks, redstarts darting in and out of their nesting holes and a dunlin displaying on the moors above Alston.

A curlew quilts the sky with soundBefore diving like a needle into the grass

We start And stop, startled by a restartEach start a tail ending

Ruth, a North Pennines AONB botanist, showed us some of the extraordinary plants on the Scarrowmanwick moor, whilst around us the wild open landscape unfolded minute by minute. We saw ‘ghost’ trees which had been stripped bare of their foliage by caterpillars which had then covered them in a blanket of fine, white silk.

The tightness of my soul unfoldsTo rest in the cradle of the hills

We walked in blessed silence and we wrote verses and made things in response to what we had experienced. Lynne and Dwayne wove together their Welsh and Liberian voices to sing us songs that moved our hearts.

Sometimes we felt we had walked as far as our legs would carry us and still there was further to go. But at the end of each day there was always wonderful food prepared by our support team to make forgive and forget our aching limbs.

Head empty of thoughts, like these hills of reiversToday I am tired
My feet plod on

Wet, wet, feet
Watching the mountainsDisappear into clouds

We were blessed with fantastic weather with only one shower in six days of walking. The midges graced us on a couple of evenings but good doses of ‘skin so soft’ kept them at bay.

Audiences flocked to the village halls in good numbers to hear the stories of the ancient landscapes performed by A Bit Crack Storytellers. The school children performed their versions of the tales with enthusiasm and gusto, displaying gorgeous pieces of artwork to accompany them.

The peat keeps many secrets in its humic heartMemories of departed trees, growl of bear, howl of wolfReflecting on your oily dark secretions, I re-wild my soul

Some quotes from the walkers

It was just great to be walking and talking, singing and thinking in beautiful country and in good company!

I really enjoyed writing the renga’s on the walk, also the cohesion that was created in the sharing circle in the morning and evening’s. I also loved walking in silence, the feeling of walking with people without talking was very profound for me.

The singing brought along by Lynne and developed by her with Dwayne illustrated the possibility of a spontaneous cultural exchange that can develop quickly when people meet with time, and stories to tell/discover and skills to share. Lynne was generous with her singing.

The whole week was very moving, and frequently my emotions were close to the surface. I feel I have made many lifelong friends. While the ‘walk’ may seem like a physical journey, the nature of the week was very much about being in the present, so much of the travel was internal.